The watch world is one that consistently looks to its past. Reissues and revivals crowd the shelves, each promising authenticity through heritage. Independent makers often take the opposite approach, pushing into the avant-garde with creations that are intriguing but sometimes difficult to wear. Sitting between these poles is Gagà Laboratorio, a young brand that looks to culture as much as mechanics. Its watches are not exercises in nostalgia, nor are they willfully eccentric. Instead, they draw from Italian design history, filtered through Swiss craft, to create objects that are original yet grounded, playful yet practical.

A project four years in the making, the brand was founded in 2024 by Ruben Tomella, the man behind Gagà Milano. Where his first venture became known for flamboyance and oversized numerals, Gagà Laboratorio was conceived with a different aim. This new chapter would balance serious horology with a freer sense of design. To realize it, Tomella turned to designer and artist Mo Coppoletta, whose work has long blurred the boundaries between applied art and storytelling. The third figure in the trio is Fabio Ferrari, Brand Manager and co-owner, whose role has been to give direction and coherence to the project. Together they form a team that blends entrepreneurial drive, creative imagination and strategic focus.

Crafting Mechanical Art

At the center of the collection is the Labormatic. Rather than a standard three-hand display, it shows the hours digitally through a disk at 12 o’clock, the minutes with a central hand, and the seconds on a rotating disk. The case, 42mm across and made from seven parts, is architectural in construction, with elongated lugs that recall the mid-century design sometimes nicknamed “Devil’s Horns.” The crown sits at 12 o’clock beneath a steel cabochon, a detail that offers both symmetry and character. The dial is layered from eight components, giving it a sense of depth, while beneath it beats the La Joux-Perret G100 caliber, known for reliability and a 68-hour reserve. The watch is finished with an Italian Saffiano leather strap, tying the mechanics back to the country’s craft traditions.

From the beginning, the Labormatic has been used to explore different cultural moods. The Bauhaus model spoke to German modernism, stripped back to geometry and function. The Cinquanta drew inspiration from Italy in the 1950s, a period when pastel tones softened the country’s new architecture and product design. It was the age of the Fiat 600, of Ponti’s Superleggera chair, of posters for Fellini films that carried bright blocks of color. These objects reflected an Italy stepping out of austerity into optimism, when design sought to make daily life not only easier but lighter, brighter and more joyful. The Cinquanta’s palette reflected that atmosphere.

A 1920s Bauhaus costume party, featuring designs by Oskar Schlemmer

Labormatic Champagne & Azzurro: Inspired by Italian Culture

In 2025, two further editions join the line: Champagne and Azzurro. Both build on the same case and movement as their predecessors but explore very different influences.

Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic Champagne

Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic Azzurro

The Champagne model provides a counterpoint to Bauhaus restraint. Its warm, golden dial has a soft radiance that immediately changes the mood of the watch. If Bauhaus belonged in the clarity of daylight, Champagne feels designed for the hours after sunset. The color suggests convivial dinners, the glow of a room lit by candles, the raised glass at a celebration. It shows that elegance in watch design does not have to be austere; it can also be warm and sociable.

Azzurro, by contrast, takes its cues from postwar Italy. Its pale blue dial echoes the paintwork of a Fiat 500 or the shutters of Ligurian seaside houses weathered by salt air. Pastel tones like this were everywhere in the 1950s and ’60s, symbols of optimism as the country rebuilt. In architecture, Gio Ponti used them to soften sharp modernist forms. In cinema, films by Fellini and Antonioni captured a society balancing progress with uncertainty, often framed in light, airy palettes. On the wrist, Azzurro does not read as a simple blue dial. It carries with it the feel of that period — an era when design looked forward with confidence and color.

While both Champagne and Azzurro sit firmly within the Labormatic family, they reveal how flexible the concept can be. Each uses the same framework — a digital dragging hour at 12 o’clock and a rotating central disk for the seconds — but interprets the minutes differently. Champagne keeps to the purer, pared-back approach with a simple pointer hand and clean markers, its dial left deliberately uncluttered to emphasize the warmth of its tone. Azzurro, by contrast, adds a moving minute frame with numerals and applied markers, a more animated and functional solution that suits its mid-century, instrument-like aesthetic. Both are variations on a single idea: to take the familiar act of reading the time and present it in a way that feels fresh, characterful and distinctly Gagà.

Both watches share the Labormatic’s seven-part steel case, the layered dial beneath double-curved sapphire, and the La Joux-Perret G100 caliber visible through a sapphire back with a customized rotor. Each is priced below CHF 4,000, making them accessible compared to many independents while still firmly positioned as collector’s pieces.

Painting a New Path in Watchmaking

The significance of these releases lies not only in their design but in what they say about Gagà Laboratorio’s place in today’s watchmaking. Genuinely new ideas in watches are uncommon. Larger brands are comfortable looking backwards, producing careful reissues. Smaller independents often lean into eccentricity. Gagà Laboratorio has found a more balanced approach. Its watches are distinctive without being difficult, unconventional yet wearable. Champagne and Azzurro show that a change in display or color, when rooted in cultural influence, can alter the whole character of a watch. One glows with warmth; the other carries the lightness of a Mediterranean summer.

This ability to connect design with influence is the strength of the brand’s leadership. Tomella brings entrepreneurial energy; Coppoletta draws on a broad palette of visual culture; Ferrari ensures the ideas become reality in a competitive market. The result is a collection that feels coherent, each model distinct but recognizably part of the same family.

They show a young brand confident enough to work with contrast — Bauhaus against Champagne, Cinquanta beside Azzurro — while keeping a strong identity. In doing so, Gagà Laboratorio demonstrates that watches need not be bound by the past or by provocation. They can be precise, wearable and still carry the atmosphere of culture.
Timepieces are, after all, more than machines on the wrist. They are companions to the hours in which they are worn. With Champagne and Azzurro, Gagà Laboratorio has created watches that feel tied not just to their mechanics, but also to moments: the laughter at a table, the colors of a seaside town, the optimism of a country in renewal. In these details lies their originality, and their charm.

Tech Specs: Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic Azzurro & Champagne

Reference: LM-AZ-001 / Ref. LM-CH-001
Movement: Self-winding La Joux-Perret Caliber G100; 68-hour power reserve
Functions: Digital hours; digital or central minutes; rotating central seconds disk
Case: 42mm × 13.3mm; stainless steel; water-resistant to 50 m
Dial: Regulator-style; pastel “Azzurro” blue finish or “Champagne” golden-toned finish
Strap: Handmade Italian Saffiano leather, color-matched; stainless steel pin buckle
Price: CHF 3,900 (excl. VAT)